Comfortable Chaos
by LiveLaughLove728
Summary: The heads of the New York Institute babysit for Magnus and Alec.


**Hello my beautiful TMI readers! It's been a while so I thought I'd give you another one-shot. :)**

 **I may have been alone in not knowing this, but... a certain edition of Lady Midnight was released with an extended chapter or extra chapter (honestly not sure which) which follows the events of Izzy and Simon's engagement party before they had to come to LA in Lady Midnight... Maybe I was the only one who didn't know. Anyway, this short story/chapter is called A Long Conversation and I only found out about it over Christmas break. Of course I read it and of course it was fantastic, but it did change my plans for this one-shot quite a lot for reasons that are obvious if you've read it or have kept up with the fandom better than I have.**

 **Anyway, all that to say this: SPOILERS for Tales for Lady Midnight and A Long Conversation, so I highly recommend you go read ALC first because a large portion of this fic relies on it. I just googled it and was able to read it easily. It's very good, so maybe do that first and come back.**

 **Other than that, I hope you enjoy!**

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The lounge of the New York Institute was a fairly small room located at the end of the second floor hallway. It was cluttered with couches and a few armchairs, and was the location of the sole TV Clary had managed to talk Jace into finally getting. It was a recent addition, part of the renovations they'd had done after taking over as Institute heads. Most of the changes had involved modernizing the place and making more practical use of disused areas like the ballroom, but Clary had wanted an area where everyone could hang out together. The library had formerly served as that, but with other Shadowhunters passing through New York and regularly staying at the Institute, she felt it important that they have another, more relaxed area as well.

The room probably served more as a make-out spot than anything else, but Clary regretted nothing.

Simon was in there currently, seated on the brown leather sofa with his guitar resting on his knee. He was intently focused on what he was doing and didn't notice her standing in the doorway, holding the blue hand of four-year old Max Lightwood-Bane. The opening chords to _Good Riddance_ emanated from the instrument's strings, the music having drawn her to the room in the first place. She found herself smirking. "Is that Green Day?" she asked.

The music broke off suddenly as Simon looked up in surprise and then grinned. "Maybe."

Max was fascinated. He let go of Clary's hand and stepped toward Simon, his eyes on the guitar in his hands. "Again!" he requested.

Smiling, Simon strummed again. He didn't play anything in particular this time; just plucked up and down, letting the strings ring out. "How's babysitting going?" he asked of Clary.

Magnus had called and asked if they could keep an eye on Rafe and Max for a few hours so he and Alec could go out. Maryse normally took them, but she was out with Isabelle working on arrangements for the wedding taking place in just under two months and would not be back until well after dinner. Magnus had sounded desperate though and Clary hadn't been able to refuse. There were no visitors currently staying at the Institute and she figured she and Jace could handle the boys for a few hours.

"Oh, fantastic," she answered mildly, "I left the room for two seconds to get dinner going for them and Jace managed to lose a kid. I found him in the weapons room. Someone left the door open." Clary raised an accusatory eyebrow. Simon snorted. "Yeah, thanks. I don't see you helping at all."

It wasn't something she was actually upset about. Simon's job as a Recruiter brought him all over the country and he'd gotten in very late the night before. And there was no telling how much sleep he'd actually gotten, as Izzy had stayed in New York wedding planning instead of going with him this time and it had been two weeks since they'd seen each other.

"What are you talking about? I'm helping right now. Look how entertained he is," said Simon. He nodded at Max, who was watching him play in fascination.

"Yeah, okay," Clary said sarcastically, changing the subject, "I didn't even know you played anymore. I thought Kirk and Eric kicked you out of the band."

"They didn't kick me out," he defended, "I will always be a founding member of The Mortal Instruments."

"Didn't they replace you when you left to become a Shadowhunter?"

" _No,"_ he scoffed with a grin, "I'm irreplaceable."

It was Clary's turn to snort. "Careful. You're starting to sound an awful lot like Jace."

"Now _that's_ a tragedy if I ever heard one. Do you think it's contagious?"

"Clary!" Jace called then from down the hall, preventing her answering. He walked quickly toward her, guiding six-year old Rafael in front of him. The latter looked disgruntled. "Any luck?" She nodded as they came to stand beside her. Jace sighed when he saw Max. "Good. I was running out of places to look. Where was he?"

"Admiring your knife collection."

"By the Angel. I swear Magnus put them up to this. I've been to their place. They're perfect angels there." He glanced at Max, suddenly wary. "He didn't get hurt, did he? Alec will _kill_ me."

"No, but he'll kill you anyway if he finds out you lost his son."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him. And don't look at me like that. I wasn't the one who said they could come here."

"Come on, Jace. They're your nephews."

"And I've accepted the responsibility valiantly. But if Alec wanted baby-proof, he should have given us more than an hour's notice."

Rafael, still more timid than his younger brother, had stood by, watching the banter between the adults and eyeing his brother and Simon with interest. He hesitated for a minute before he too, wandered forward to where Clary's _parabatai_ was strumming the guitar more realistically now. The boys were enthralled. Simon met her eyes over their heads and grinned.

Jace and Clary watched the boys with him, Clary with a small smile and Jace with a raised eyebrow. "Looks like we've finally found a use for your mundane interests," Jace told him.

Simon, who had been playing through _Saturday_ , narrowed his eyes. "It's called music, Jace," he countered lightly, "And this may come as a shock to you but you play it too."

"It most certainly is not. What _I_ play is music; Liszt and Rachmaninoff. Just because you _call_ that trash you play music doesn't make it so."

"I've never been so insulted," Simon remarked dryly, his hands stilling.

"You must not listen very much then." A few years ago, Jace's comeback toward Simon would have been laced with malice and dislike. Now, his tone held an underlying lightness that only those who knew him well were capable of detecting. It was a tone that suggested he would have been grinning if the act had called for it, and also how Clary—and, she knew Simon too—knew he wasn't actually being cruel.

Simon snorted. "Whatever. The kids like my music better."

"Seeing as they're four and six years old, I'm not that concerned," Jace retorted. Simon looked like he was going to say something inappropriate in response, but then glanced at the kids in the room and obviously decided otherwise. Clary was grateful. Rafe and Max didn't need to be learning profanity yet, and definitely not on her watch.

Max still stared at the silent guitar in Simon's hands, waiting for him to begin playing again with the expression of a child contemplating touching something without knowing if he should or not. Rafael however had lost interest once the music stopped and turned away now, crossing to where Clary stood with Jace in the doorway. He pulled on the hem of her shirt. "Do you have my book?" he asked quietly.

Rafael had been all but mute around everyone but his parents up until very recently. He was extremely shy and still only spoke when absolutely necessary to everyone else. Clary smiled gently. "No, I don't, sorry."

"Did you leave it in the library?" Jace asked him.

The young Shadowhunter thought for a second and then nodded, looking upset. "Okay," Clary said quickly, "That's okay. We can go get it." She held out her hand, "We'll go right now."

Hesitantly, the six-year old reached out and grabbed her proffered fingers. Clary smiled wider. Rafe was really sweet once he allowed you to get to know him, and while she was still slightly nervous with him, she really did like him. Turning with him to go, she glanced back into the lounge where Simon was letting Max strum the guitar strings from in front while he changed chords. "Look at you!" he told him emphatically, "You're a rock star!" The little warlock looked elated and Simon, smiling encouragingly at him, was adorable.

"Can you handle him for a few minutes?" Clary asked of her _parabatai_. Rafe was looking at her in silent impatience.

"Sure," Simon answered without sparing her a glance.

She smiled and shook her head before looking back at Rafael. "Let's go." Jace followed them from the lounge and fell into step on Clary's other side. "You were supposed to stay with Simon," she informed him half-heartedly.

"It scares me sometimes that he's so good with children," he said by way of explanation. "If I'd stayed, I might have been forced to tell him so, and his ego is too inflated at the moment to hear something that could be misconstrued as a complement."

Clary snorted. "You're not bad with them yourself when you try, you know."

"Of course I'm not. But I don't think I'm ready for my sister to start reproducing yet, so Simon will receive no encouragement from me."

"Well, they are getting married, Jace."

"So are we," he added unhelpfully.

Clary rolled her eyes, smiling. "I'm saying you can't expect them to wait forever."

"They don't have to wait forever. Just a while."

They were almost to the library now. Rafe was either listening closely to their conversation or paying them no attention at all. Clary couldn't tell which, so she was careful about her wording just in case.

"You're cute when you're overprotective," she informed Jace as they stopped in the doorway of the Institute's library. Rafael let go of her hand and sauntered inside, toward the sofa where he'd sat earlier, reading the book he'd brought with him from home. Alec had taught him how to read a few months earlier and since then, he'd become quite the bookworm. The colorful paperback now lay abandoned on the sofa and Rafe moved to retrieve it. Jace and Clary hung back, watching him.

"I'll give you cute," Jace murmured seductively in her ear. A response to her comment.

"Stop it," she scolded lightly, "There are children here."

"I know. And believe me, seeing you with them is giving me thoughts I didn't want to have for a long time."

Clary looked at him with raised eyebrows. "What, so it's okay for me to be barefoot and pregnant, but not Izzy?"

"You're not my sister," was his response.

His face was that of someone referencing an inside joke and Clary laughed, "Thank the Angel for that."

Rafael had settled himself down on the sofa now and had his book open in his lap. He seemed unconcerned as to whether they would be joining him or not. Clary found it sad that he'd been forced to become so independent at such a young age. Even while the skill had kept him alive, it was a burden he and his parents would have to deal with for a long time. She didn't want to think about what would have happened had Magnus failed to find the little boy when he did.

"Can you stay here with him?" Clary asked Jace, her eyes still on Rafe's black head bent over the paperback. "I need to get dinner started soon or we won't be eating."

Jace sighed and then nodded, his mind still clearly on other, less appropriate topics. He grabbed a book from a stack on a nearby table and moved toward the young Shadowhunter. Clary turned to leave for the kitchen but stopped in the doorway and glanced back one more time. Jace had sat down in an armchair near the sofa Rafe occupied. He had his own book open before him, but he was watching his nephew in a sort of gentle consideration that melted Clary's heart a little. Feeling her eyes on him, Jace glanced over at her and met her gaze across the room, a small, embarrassed smile crossing his face. She smiled back at him and left, smiling even wider to herself as she thought about just how good Jace really was with the boys. How good he might one day be with a child of their own.

Not that she was ready for that yet, but they _were_ getting married soon and she definitely wanted a family with Jace someday. And it was a nice thought.

Clary had never considered herself all that good of a cook, however Maryse had taught her a few recipes that she wasn't half-bad at. One of these was a vegetable stir-fry that usually went over pretty well with everyone, which she made now, along with Kraft Mac n Cheese for the boys per Magnus' instruction.

The first meal she'd ever made by herself and served to the New York Shadowhunters, she'd been slightly nervous as to how it would be received. Jace had assured her that anything she made had to be better than Izzy's culinary mishaps and Simon, though he loved Isabelle dearly, hadn't been able to refute that. He did laugh at Clary sometimes for how domesticated she'd become since taking over the Institute with Jace, but then, with Maryse often coming and going, someone had to do it. They couldn't exactly live solely on pizza and Chinese food. Clary's mother had taught her that much.

She thought now as she stirred vegetables into pasta how strange it all was that they were here now; how they'd grown up and were living adult lives of their own. If she really allowed herself to think about that, it was amazing.

When the food was almost done, she texted Jace and Simon to bring the boys to the kitchen and set out plates for everyone while she waited. Jace appeared with Rafael first, guiding him gently with a hand between his shoulder blades. He was regaling the young boy with a story about an Elipid demon and Rafe looked rather fascinated by the tale. Clary smiled at them. Jace left him to sit down and moved toward her. He kissed her cheek. "I think Rafe's going to make a great Shadowhunter one day," he said, loud enough for the young boy to hear.

"Of course he is," she replied with a smile, looking at Rafe. He looked pleased.

Simon walked joined them then, a giggling Max slung over his shoulder. "And the rocket's coming in for landing!" He said, rushing in with him. He made a swooshing sound and deposited Max in the chair next to his brother. "And he's down," he declared, "The Eagle has landed!"

"I'm pretty sure that's what they said after actually landing on the moon, not coming back again," Clary informed him, setting dinner on the table before them.

"Shh. He doesn't know that," Simon replied, "In fact, aside from you and me, I doubt anyone around here does."

"Of course I know about the moon landing," Jace interjected, taking a seat across from Rafe. "I'm not completely ignorant of the mundanes' accomplishments, you know."

"You're not?" Clary asked, sitting beside him.

"No," he informed her, "I read about it in a book once." He scooped food onto her plate and his while she served macaroni and cheese to Rafe and Max, "Of course, we could simply Portal to the moon if we ever felt so inclined, with much less time and resources than they put into it. Though I don't know why we'd want to. There's not much exciting about it and I personally enjoy the ability to breathe."

"Mundanes don't know about Portals and demon dimensions," said Simon reasonably, "Space travel is a pretty big deal for them."

"How incredibly boring," Jace said disinterestedly. He took a bite of food. Clary snorted and met Simon's eyes across the table before following suit. Jace would never understand mundanes. None of the natural born Shadowhunters did, and that was fine. They didn't need to. She loved them all anyway. Clary was just glad she had Simon to understand them with her. That way, she wasn't alone in her strangeness.

Simon snorted but didn't comment further. Clary looked around at the boys around her and smiled to herself. She'd gained quite a family since learning about the Nephilim, and amazing though it was that they were all still here together, the utter normalcy of it all in spite of it almost made up for everything they'd had to go through to get there.

Ten minutes after they finished eating, Alec and Magnus returned. They walked into the kitchen, where Jace stood at the sink, washing the dishes Clary brought him as she cleared the table. Simon still sat with Rafe and Max, teaching them how to play Tic Tac Toe on a notepad he'd found on the counter. "Ah," Magnus said, stopping just past the doorway while Alec continued inside toward their sons, "You managed not to kill our children. Lovely."

"Did they eat?" Alec asked, smoothing down Max's hair from behind.

"Nope," Jace answered easily, not looking away from the plate he was rinsing, "We forced them to watch us eat and offered them nothing."

Alec cast a withering look at the back of Jace's blond head, but Rafe giggled and ruined the effect. Alec shook his head. "If these two grow up to be sarcastic you-know-what's, I'm coming after you," he informed his _parabatai_ , obviously conscious of the little ears present.

"Unless they use the skills you taught them against you," Magnus put in reasonably, "In which case, we'll sit back and enjoy the show."

Simon laughed. "So will I."

Alec sighed, though he looked slightly entertained at the thought, and turned to the boys. "Ready to go home?" he asked them. They nodded obediently.

They were all gone a few minutes later, and Izzy and Maryse returned a few minutes after that, which quickly left Clary alone with Jace. They wound up in the lounge, Jace half-lying across the sofa and holding her to him. It was suddenly very quiet, which was welcome after the hours they had just spent wrangling two little boys.

Even so, she reasoned as they lay there, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for the quiet to be broken by the sounds of little kids more often.

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 **Thanks for reading!**


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